There are four basic types of information that can be entered into a worksheet: text, numbers, formulas, and functions. In this section, we will work with text and numeric data.
Copying the practice workbook
If you are beginning this course at this point, you will need to copy the practice workbook to your Google Drive.
- To begin copying the practice workbook in a new browser window,
Right-Click Copy practice workbook, Click Open link in new window
The file begins to open in a new window of the web browser. Before the document will open and can be edited, we need to make a copy of it.
Move to the new browser window.
- To copy the workbook file, in the browser window,
Click 
A copy of the file is now open and, by default, is saved in your Google Drive. The filename now has the words "Copy of" at the beginning.
This worksheet is designed to help track sales for a fundraiser. The first column lists the items for sale, the second column lists the price of each item, and the third column shows the number of items sold. The fourth column will be used to calculate the total sales for each item.
Understanding text data
Text data can be a combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Names and addresses are both examples of text data. There are even some numbers that should be considered text data, like ID numbers and phone numbers. Because these numbers are not used in mathematical calculations, they should be treated as text.
In Google Sheets by default, text data is aligned to the left within the cell. The formatting of text data, including alignment, font type, style, color, and size, can easily be changed by using the tools on the toolbar. Let's add some text to a cell, then practice formatting it.
- To change the active cell to A7,
Click in cell A7
- To add text to cell A7, type:
Totals
- To accept this entry, on the keyboard, press:
Enter key
- To select the cell containing the text to be formatted,
Click cell A7
- To apply bold formatting to the word "Totals," on the toolbar,
Click
The text is now bold and the active cell is cell A8.
Now let's add and format some numeric data.
Understanding numeric data
Numeric data is typically used to perform calculations. In Google Sheets, by default numeric data is aligned to the right side of the cell and can be formatted just like text data. However, other formatting options, such as currency or percentage, can also be applied.
We can see that there is no quantity in the Number Sold cell for the Phone charger. Also, the numbers in the Item Price column have not been formatted as currency. Let's correct these things now.
- To change the active cell to C4,
Click cell C4
- To add the numeric data, type:
16 Enter key
- To select the range of cells to format,
Press & Drag cells B2:B6
- To format this range as currency, on the toolbar,
Click
- To deselect the range,
Click in a blank area of the worksheet
Now that we have practiced entering data, let's see how to work with formulas.